Combined Effect of Rarefaction and Effective Viscosity on Micro-Elasto-Aerodynamic Lubrication Performance of Gas Microbearings

Elastic deformation and gaseous rarefaction effects are of great importance to the static and dynamic characteristics of gas microbearings. Based on the effective viscosity model of Veijola, the governing equations can be solved by the partial derivative method, finite element procedure, and relaxed iterative algorithm. The numerical results showed that the maximum gas pressure is relatively lower compared to a microbearing with a rigid liner at a local pressure peak region, owing to the film thickness of two converging-diverging profiles and the existence of bimodal pressure inside the elastic microbearing liner. However, the effect of bearing flexibility provides a marginal increase in the load capacity on account of the integral area of pressure distribution is larger than the rigid bearing liner. The friction coefficient and direct stiffness coefficients increase as the elastic modulus decreases while the direct damping coefficients become smaller at high eccentricity ratios and bearing numbers. Since the Poiseuille flow rate increases in connection with an increasing Knudsen number, the effective viscosity of the lubricant leads to a decreased load carrying capacity, friction coefficient, and direct stiffness coefficient, which produces an increase in the direct damping coefficients.